Nothing wrong with aspirations. But bear in mind that the 550D/T2i sensor should just as good as the 7D for astrophotography. And I'd also avoid using high ISO numbers. My personal choice is 400 but 800 is also commonly used. It's a trade-off between thermal noise and sensor readout noise, as I understand it, but I've not gone into this in any depth. You might find Christian Buil's 40D tests an interesting read.

I was about to agree with you about the webcam but I've just noticed that SBIG have previewed a dedicated Planet Cam and Autoguider:

The product page has more details, including some nice animations, but here are the headlines:

ST-i PLANET CAM AND AUTOGUIDER

Low noise, high sensitivity CCD - Monochrome or Color

Internal mechanical shutter for automatic dark frames

Electronic shutter for short exposures

Up to 21 frames per second in focus mode

16 bit A/D

Eyepiece size body (1.25" diameter)

Low cost

Lightweight - only 2.2 oz.

Powered from USB Port

Standard Guider Output Port

Front end threaded for standard 1.25" filters

CCDOPS Autoguiding and Imaging Software with Planet Master™

CCDSoftV5 Autoguiding and Imaging Software Software

The ST-i Planet Cam and Autoguider adds features unavailable elsewhere in a camera of this size and price. A high performance compact camera that is an excellent guider and very capable Planet Camera. The body is light weight, no larger than many 1.25" eyepieces. In fact, it is 1.25" in diameter, 3.5" long and weighs only 2.2 ounces. The camera receives both control signals and power from the USB port of your computer, so only one thin USB cable is required for using the camera as an imager. For guiding, a standard, opto-isolated, autoguider output port is located in the back panel.

Not available until April/May and the suggested retail price of $595 may seem a little high but I've a feeling that this little shotgun cartridge might be very good value...

Agreed. I'm doing some serious window shopping right now with a view to possibly pulling the trigger next year on that Celestron I mentioned above and it looks like that ST-i could do dual duty very handily as an autoguider behind my little TeleVue Pronto and as a planet cam behind the Celestron and SBIG are even promising OS X compatibility.

At the other end of the scale I've been drooling over the possibilities of a Starlight Xpress SXVR-H18 fitted behind a HyperStar lens. Unfortunately I think the Atik cameras may be bulkier than I would like for that application but the Titan might well be an alternative to the ST-i.

But while I can find press releases for the Atik Titan I can't find the product page. Have you got a link you can share?

I also cannot find a product page for the Titan (mine was delivered yesterday ) which is odd. Why sell a product and not put it on their website? I do know of another forum which has a brief review of the Titan which I can post if it doesn't break forum rules?

One thing I have found though is I still need to run windows to autoguide with the Titan as PHD on the Mac doesn't work , still Im probably missing something knowing me, lol

Of course, I can do my own mini review here once Ive worked it all out etc

I dream of getting a large format CCD in the future but that will take some saving I think. I must admit I do like the Starlight Xpress and SBIGs.

In this post above I drew attention to SBIG's preview of their dedicated Planet Cam and Autoguider. While browsing the Starlight Xpress site I see they've had a similar idea with their newly announced CoStar, which also fits into a 1.25" eyepiece holder:

Comparing this with the SBIG equivalent shows some fairly significant differences and, arguably, the SBIG wins many of the comparisons but the CoStar is significantly cheaper and also has a larger pixel count and smaller pixel size which may be useful for some.

Update: The sensor manufacturer's name, Aptina, rang a few bells and I remembered their DR-Pix Technology announcement which I flagged here. The MT9M001 sensor (product page) used in the CoStar doesn't appear to use that technology but one thing that the data sheet flags that is missing from the CoStar specs above is a 30 fps progressive scan 1280x1024 video mode.

Maybe the Starlight Xpress driver can't deliver this or maybe Starlight Xpress forgot to mention it but if that mode is available then the CoStar becomes even more interesting. If I find out more I'll post in this thread.

Bob.

P.S. For a higher spec device in terms of sensitivity and read noise, albeit with a lower pixel count and larger pixels, that also uses the same 1.25" form factor Starlight Xpress offer their Lodestar.

In response to my enquiry regarding the possibility of fully utilising the 30 fps of the Aptina MT9M001 sensor in the CoStar camera referred to just above I've just had the following reply from Terry Platt at Starlight Xpress:

We are slightly restricted by the USB chip, which drives the sensor, and it runs at 15 FPS max. at the moment. It's possible that improved firmware could increase this at some time in the future.

So, not quite such good news as one might have hoped for but the CoStar still looks like good value to me. And full marks to Starlight Xpress for responding so quickly to the question.

I came back for an 1 hour session where I tried the camera on a microscope c-mount and through an Orion 80ED during daytime. The image I was getting was very sharp. I am hoping that I could do Saturn tonight and maybe a few capture of the "SuperMoon".